There Once Was a Bully

Monday I took Miss Bug to the doctor (if you don’t know us and the story, she has had two sets of tubes, adenoids taken out and still has re-occurring ear infections) – I’ll save you the details, but of course her ears were infected. 

We checked in at the front desk and Bug immediately went to color (the pediatrician’s office has a great coloring set up).  She was happily coloring with three crayons (two in one hand, one in the other).  I sat down and was watching her color when this other mom and her school age child sat down beside us.  The other mom did mom stuff, brushed the child’s hair, took off her coat, etc., then told her to go color.  The other child (whom we will call the evil one) walked right up to Bug and took one of her crayons!  Bug looked at me and I was just appalled and sat there with my mouth open until the evil one tried to take Bug’s color page and sit in the same seat that she was sitting in!  I promptly got up out of my seat, closed my mouth, and took the crayons from the evil one and handed them back to Bug.  The evil one’s mom looked at me and said very nicely, “how old is your daughter” to which I responded, “20 months…DID YOU JUST SEE THAT YOUR DAUGHTER TOOK HER CRAYONS?”  The evil one’s mom laughed nervously (probably because she could see I was a little angry) and said oh, they are just children.  I laughed back at her and said, “you know juvenile delinquents start early sometimes”. 

Yes, I know I did not handle the situation as best as possible.  But there are two things I want Bug to learn from this situation:

1. Bullies suck and bullying will not be tolerated.
2. I will always protect her (even if it is just from some stupid kid taking her crayons).

Advice Requested

This is a plea to those of you who have children, know children, or just want to help a gal out.  My little one, “Bug”, as she’s called here, has bad ears.  We’ve tried tubes, antibiotics, different ENTs, diet changes, allergy medicine and other crazy stuff (nothing too crazy, though) and we’re still plagued with ear infections.  She’s 18 months old now and had 7 ear infections before tubes in January and now has had another 7 after tubes. 

If you have any ideas for us, please leave a comment.

Thanks in advance!

Today’s Hike

This post was suppose to be an awesome post about an equally awesome hike…but then life happened.

Bug had a doctor’s appointment this morning, which was suppose to be a quick in and out visit, but with the flu season starting a quick visit turned into an hour wait for the doctor,  followed by a trip to the hospital to get an ex-ray on her lungs to check for pneumonia.  Long story short, she does have a mild case of pneumonia.  😦

We have another doctor’s appointment scheduled for Wednesday of this week.  Until then, it’s breathing treatments ever 4 hours for the next 24 hours, then we move to less frequent, but still breathing treatments for a while.

Does that come in Dairy Free?

This week we took Bug back to to the doctor (seems like we spend entirely too much time there), but this time it was to an ENT for a second opinion. In case you don’t know or would like a recap, here’s a quick overview of our sad ear saga: Amelia had between 6-8 ear infections before she was 10 months old, then she got tubes in January. Since then she’s had 4 each infections.

We took her back to the ENT two weeks ago and were really frustrated. His response was to prescribe antibiotics and wait for two weeks and re-check. These were the same antibiotics that she’s taken and obviously they weren’t doing the job. We saw a new ENT on Monday for a second opinion. He was great, he listened and gave us a plan of action. His first suggestion was to keep Bug’s ears as dry as possible, second was to test her for food allergies (dairy, then wheat) and final was to suggest to replace the tubes and take out her andoids (last resort). He said we’d know if she had food allergies if her runny nose stops running.

We’ve taken all the dairy out of her diet and Bug no longer has a runny nose! I figured a runny nose was just part of the daycare badge that daycare kids wear, but I guess I was wrong!

Tomorrow we’ll be venturing out to Whole Foods to find some good dairy free options (we had a bit of a cheese melt down this week). Oh and by the way, Cheez-It contain dairy 😦

Parenting Decisions

Since Saturday we have been to the doctor twice. Bug had an ear infection (if you are counting since the tubes in January – this makes 3 ear infections since then) and the symptoms reared their ugly head on Saturday. Thankfully, her doctor’s office is open 7 days a week and they had an opening on Saturday morning (after we ran the 5k). We went in, got the typical antibiotic and ear drops and also were given advise on how to deal with eczema (new for her) and allergies. Well all was okay, until this morning.

Bug woke up this morning with swollen eyes and face. She looked pitiful, but didn’t seem to feel bad (other than what we knew was wrong), so I loaded her up and took her to school (daycare). As I drove to work my mind was working in overdrive, should I have kept her at home today since her eyes were swollen? Should I call the nurse and make an appointment? Should I just call the nurse and ask? Should I just assume she’s going to be okay and go on with my day. On most days I have no problems making decisions, but today I was really in a quandary. Then I remembered a bit of advise that I received from a friend of mine who has 3 high school aged children. Her advise was to always go with your gut and mine was telling me to call the nurse and ask her. Thankfully, I followed my gut.

Nurse wanted the doctor to see Amelia and a breathing treatment and lots of medicine later, we found out that she was wheezing due to asthma and had had a small allergic reaction to sunscreen I had put on her yesterday (which had caused the swollen eyes and face). She’ll get rechecked on Saturday.

I feel so blessed that this was a very small reaction and that I listened to the advise I was given.

Hand, Foot & Mouth

Well, the last few days have been tiring and not fun for Bug. She has had Hand, Foot & Mouth and thankfully it hasn’t been a horrible case, she has had a few blisters in her mouth (3 to be exact), but none on her feet or hands.

It all started on Saturday when the fabulous (and I really mean that – she’s perfect) daycare director called me to let me know that a case had been report in Amelia’s daycare room. Well, before you know it she’s running a fever and is broke out. Thankfully our pediatrician’s office is open for a few hours on Sunday, after a well planned out trip (because going to the pediatrician’s office on a Sunday requires planning – I’ll explain later) we find out that she does have Hand, Foot & Mouth. Since this is super contagious, Bug is out of school until the blisters are all gone, which looks like around Thursday.

Going to the pediatrician’s office on a Sunday requires a bit of organization. The office is open from 3:00-4:30 and it’s first come, first serve, which means you have to get there 20-30 minutes early and wait in line (I’m serious). Thankfully, my sister offered (yes, she is a saint) to go with me and run interference (meaning sit in the car while I stand in line). We were the first to arrive at the office and 2nd in line…there was one “dude” whose time was apparently more important than mine. All was good in the end, Bug was seen by the doctor, we were in and out in 20 minutes and got to stop by Starbucks on the way home.

So, this week I’ve been pretending to be a stay at home mom. I think Bug will benefit from going back to school, there’s much better toys there and there are kids for her to play with. I will miss being at home with her, but I think we both will benefit from getting back to our normal routine.

Our First Jogging Stroller Jaunt

Today, after a trip to the Pediatrician’s office to get Bug’s ears rechecked (no infection!). We decided to take advantage of this beautiful day and use the jogging stroller. This was the first time we’d used the jogging stroller and ventured out not too far from home…we used our driveway (it’s 1/3 of a mile). We only walked for about 20 minutes, the evening air was getting a little cool for a little one. I have high hopes for evening walks with Bug when the weather gets warmer. She really seemed to like the jogging stroller.

Sunday Office Hours

Several times a week (I’d like to say here “daily”) I post on Twitter something that I’m thankful for…today it was Amelia’s Pediatrician’s Sunday office hours and that’s what this post is about.

Yes, Bug is still sick. 😦 That makes no one happy in our house. But thankfully, we could go to the doctor today and find out what was making Bug unhappy. If you are ever wanting to spend 3 hours in a time warp, I’d suggest you venture to our Pediatrician’s office on a Sunday. Really this was crazy. They are open from 3:00pm to 4:30pm on Sunday afternoons and it’s first come first serve, sick only. We arrived at 2:50pm to find a line (yes, a line) waiting at the door. There were probably 10-15 sick children already waiting in line and at least five cars parking when we arrived. We dutifully unloaded and took our place in line, still very thankful for the opportunity.

Bug was very, very good in the doctor’s office and of course seemed much better when we arrived. I was really humbled by how much of a service the doctor’s office was providing by being open, even for a few hours, on a Sunday and what those working gave up.

We saw a doctor that we had not seen before and she was great, very compassionate and seemed to be just what the doctor ordered (pun intended).

Long story short (really?) Bug has a double ear infection (yes, you can still get ear infections with tubes) and a brochiclial infection. We have antibiotics and hopefully she’ll be better tomorrow.

Follow up with the ENT and Phone Fun

Today, Bug had her two week follow up with the ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor) to check her tubes. First, can you believe it’s been two weeks? Time has flown! All is great with her ears, no infection! She also received a hearing test and passed with flying colors. We were a little worried going in to the appointment because she had been pulling at her ears and had been very fussy, the doctor told us that that was normal. Apparantly when little kids get tubes, the first month following that they are super sensitive to the sounds around and not having the ears filled with fluid, so Bug will need to adjust.

On another note, I got a new cell phone today. My old one was on the blink, but under warranty, so it was to be replaced free of charge. Unfortuante for the cell phone company they didn’t have the same one in stock or in the warehouse so I got upgraded to a much nicer phone for free. Super cool. Only problem is that this phone is way more techy than I am, so it will take me a little bit to get use to it. 🙂

Tubes

Bug got her tubes yesterday.  The day started out pretty well, up very, very early (we had to be at the surgery center at 6:30am).  All in all the procedure went very well, the only hiccup of the day was the doctor arriving an hour late for her procedure.  

Bug was an absolute angel waiting for the doctor to arrive and since she’s learned “bye, bye” (both the hand wave and saying it!) she showed off to anyone that walked by her (which of course the superhero and I thought was adorable).  

After the procedure (which took maybe 15 minutes) I got the “pleasure” of seeing a 10 month old baby trying to shake off anthesia, not fun.  Bug was so unbelievably cranking and crying, which we were told was good and very normal.  She basically cried the entire way home, but then after a nice nap she was all smiles and chatty.